On the subject of “Al Queerda,” two WYD developments: one encouraging, the other disappointing, if not unexpected.

First, the disappointing.SameSame reports (the item is cached because it appears to have been removed from the website) the experience of one caller to ABC Radio’s 702, who had offered some of the pilgrims a place to stay:

“I’m a Catholic and through our local church we volunteered to host five pilgrims at our house,” said Andrew. “We thought it would be a good way to kind of share our house and [do the right thing]. Anyway we had them come to stay and we put on a big – they’re Kiwis these five people that came – and we put on this big spread for them, seafood, wine everything.”Andrew said that at one point one of the pilgrims said, “I thought we were staying with a couple,” to which Andrew replied “Well you are!” It was then that he introduced them to his partner. “I said, well I’m gay and this is my, you know, boyfriend. And they said, oh we have to leave, that’s against God.”

Not only did the pilgrims leave, they actually went so far as to tell Andrew that he’d burn in hell. “They said, you know, we have to leave and they were going to stay for a week and they got in the cab and left on the first night.”

Back to Crackergate. I said the reaction to PZ’s post has been hysterical. It’s more than hysterical. It’s insane. And it’s simply astonishing that a culture that can rise to these heights . . .

. . . can at the same time find a place for the belief, apparently widely held by seemingly-rational individuals, that a disc of unleavened bread can, with the utterance of a few magic words, transform–not metaphorically, not allegorically, not symbolically, but literally transform–into Jesus. Come on, this is Xenu-grade nuttery, folks, and it deserves to be treated as such.

Props

Mr van Bigot [. . .] It's interesting the new morality of atheists. Commenting off topic is normal to humans. But atheists have such a rigid mind.
Your hypocrisy in accusing me of abuse is too breathtaking for words.
"Epic non sequitur." Your repetition is typical of the atheist misuse of Latin as being a magic language (also an RC delusion). Bless. (novparl, Five Public Opinions)

I’m bored waiting for signs of intelligence on this website. That’s justification enough to ignore it. Go back to your group hug now, and reassure yourselves that you’ve formed your views based on “reason” and not “faith”. (Alan, Five Public Opinions)

Hey, AV’s back. This is the infant who called me a nazi up above. Hi precious, welcome back. How was your kindy nap? Have you had your milk? ("Rebellion")

AV,
eloquence will not persuade me.
you may have a captive audience amongst your peers,but your words are like a clanging cymbal, a rather obnoxious noise after awhile. ("Saved Sinner", OzAtheist)

Cogitating about irrational, self-contradictory and anti-empirical intellectual dogmas such as falliblism does not interest me. Nor am I interested in the bigoted, selective applications of these nonsenses by one such as their zealous, close-minded ideologue. (Paul Robotham, A Churchless Faith)

a religious fundamentalist is by definition someone who is without doubt about their faith position and who spends a great deal of their time and energy promoting their faith by denouncing any person's contrary understandings of the universe.You meet this definition in with out any difficulty (Iain Hall, Malott's Blog)

Arthur reveals a little more of himself with each comment. Soon you’ll be confronted by the whole picture: Arthur uses everyone as a mirror for his own misplaced narcissism. ("Daniel", Old Lines From a Floating Life)